I hadn’t listened to a lot of Jackie’s work back in my early days of jazz… but now I’m realizing (thanks to YOUTUBE) that he contributed a LOT of very solid jazz to the scene… playing with favorites of mine like Lee Morgan, he is one HOT player:

Along with Rollins, he played on Miles Davis‘ Dig album, when he was 19 years old. As a young man McLean also recorded with Gene Ammons, Charles Mingus on the seminal Pithecanthropus Erectus, George Wallington, and as a member of Art Blakey‘s Jazz Messengers. McLean joined Blakey after reportedly being punched by Mingus. Fearing for his life, McLean pulled out a knife and contemplated using it against Mingus in self-defense. He later stated that he was grateful that he had not stabbed the bassist.[2]

His early recordings as leader were in the hard bop school. He later became an exponent of modal jazz without abandoning his foundation in hard bop. Throughout his career he was known for a distinctive tone, akin to the tenor saxophone and often described with such adjectives as “bitter-sweet,” “piercing,” or “searing,” a slightly sharp pitch, and a strong foundation in the blues.

In 1962 he recorded Let Freedom Ring for Blue Note. This album was the culmination of attempts he had made over the years to deal with harmonic problems in jazz, incorporating ideas from the free jazz developments of Ornette Coleman and the “new breed” which inspired his blending of hard bop with the ‘new thing’: “the search is on, Let Freedom Ring”. Emblematic of his stylistic growth is the solo on his piece “Quadrangle” as compared to the version of the same tune on BST 4051, Jackie’s Bag, recorded in 1959. Let Freedom Ring began a period in which he performed with avant-garde jazz musicians rather than the veteran hard bop performers he had been playing with previously. His adaptation of modal jazz and free jazz innovations to his vision of hard bop made his recordings from 1962 on distinctive.

In 1967, his recording contract, like those of many other progressive musicians, was terminated by Blue Note’s new management. His opportunities to record promised so little pay that he abandoned recording as a way to earn a living, concentrating instead on touring. In 1968, he began teaching at The Hartt School of the University of Hartford. He later set up the university’s African American Music Department (now the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz) and its Bachelor of Music degree in Jazz Studies program. His Steeplechase recording, “New York Calling” showed that by 1980 the assimilation of all influences was complete, in this outstanding recording made with his son, René McLean.

In 1970, he and his wife, Dollie McLean, founded the Artists Collective, Inc. of Hartford, an organization dedicated to preserving the art and culture of the African Diaspora. It provides educational programs and instruction in dance, theatre, music and visual arts. The membership of McLean’s later bands were drawn from his students in Hartford, including Steve Davis and his son René, who is a jazz saxophonist and flautist as well as a jazz educator. Also in McLean’s Hartford group was Mark Berman, the jazz pianist and broadway conductor of Smokey Joe’s Cafe and Rent. In 1979 he reached No. 53 in the UK Singles Chart with “Doctor Jackyll and Mister Funk”.[3]

He received an American Jazz Masters fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2001 and numerous other national and international awards. McLean was the only American jazz musician to found a department of studies at a University and a community based organization almost simultaneously. Each has existed for over three decades.

After a long illness, McLean died on March 31, 2006, in Hartford, Connecticut. In 2006, Jackie McLean was elected to the DownBeat Hall of Fame via the International Critics Poll.

Derek Ansell’s full-length biography of McLean, Sugar Free Saxophone (London: Northway Books, 2012), details the story of his career and provides a full analysis of his music on record.